


Missing

by Rei382



Series: Drarropoly 2020 [9]
Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: College AU, M/M, Muggle AU, POV Animal
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-20
Updated: 2021-01-20
Packaged: 2021-03-12 07:13:43
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,120
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28881516
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Rei382/pseuds/Rei382
Summary: It all started when Draco's cat went missing.
Relationships: Draco Malfoy/Harry Potter
Series: Drarropoly 2020 [9]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2025436
Comments: 8
Kudos: 69
Collections: Drarropoly '20: Founders Edition





	Missing

**Author's Note:**

> Written for my most recent Drarropoly prompt:  
> Eeylop's Owl Emporium  
> Theme: Hufflepuff  
> A pet can be a blessing or a curse.  
> Choose one of the following:
> 
> Someone brings home an unexpected pet.  
> A pet or stray animal brings Harry and Draco together.  
> A pet or animal keeps disrupting the situation.  
> (OWL level: Write at least 25% of the story from the perspective of the animal.)
> 
> **** A huge thanks to [SumthinClever](https://archiveofourown.org/users/SumthinClever/pseuds/SumthinClever) for beta'ing this thing and catching the mistakes I made from rushing to get this done ^^"
> 
> That was my 9th submission! Woah! I really want to get to 10 >.>

When Draco couldn’t see his cat anywhere in the house his parents rented for him for his school time, he grabbed his coat and left the house.

"Cassiopeia!" He called as soon as he was out the door. He looked for her and kept calling her name, walking around his little garden. But she wasn’t at any of her usual places, so he continued on to the street. He felt his heartbeat increasing as he realized she might be anywhere: stuck in a tree, locked in some random weirdo’s house,  _ on the road _ ...

" Hey!”

Draco glanced at the voice and saw a young man standing at the entrance to the house he’d just passed. “What?” he snapped at him. He really had no intention of wasting any time. His cat was  _ somewhere _ around here, and he  _ had _ to find her and take her home – and put some new rules in place, such as, she’s not allowed outside anymore.

The man seemed a little bit taken aback by Draco’s response, but determined to speak to him. Now that Draco was actually looking at him, Draco realized that he was about the same age as himself, but he looked incredibly sloppy, with his messy hair and ugly, unflattering hoodie. He also looked vaguely familiar; but Draco could figure this out later.

“I’m sorry to have disturbed you, but, well… Cassiopeia, is that a cat?”

Draco blinked, and then frowned. He was starting to get suspicious. “Yes, she is. Why?”

“A grey cat with no ears?”

_ No ears _ . You could tell this bloke had no idea about cats or sophistication. “Yes, a purebred silver Scottish Fold.” He took his phone out, turned on the screen, where a picture of his girl scratching her scratch pole served as his wallpaper, and showed it to the man. “Have you seen her?”

“Yes! Follow me, she’s at my place.”

Excited, Draco followed him. Hearing those words,  _ she’s at my place _ , pushed any other thought to the back of his head. Questions like  _ what is she doing at  _ your _ place _ ? And  _ what do I need to do to get her back? _ were pushed for later. Unimportant. He was going to see his cat – and take her home. And  _ keep _ her there.

It felt like forever and yet like no time at all when the man reached his home and opened the door. Draco walked in, uninvited.

“Cassiopeia!”

His heart jumped in his chest when he heard her ‘meow’. He smiled broadly and walked in its direction. He found his cat resting on the sofa, leaving her light-grey hairs all over the furniture as if it was hers. Draco walked towards her, barely even noticing the other young man that was there; he only got a glance of bright red hair before he grabbed his cat in his arms – much to his pleasure and her  _ dis _ pleasure.

“You little devil,” he said, but kissed her furry little head anyway.

“I suppose you found the owner.”

Draco looked up to see the redhead looking at him. He ignored him.

“She, uh, meowed at our door all morning, is what Ron said. He had to let her in. We fed her some canned tuna, but she has no collar or anything so I didn’t know who she belonged to,” Draco turned to look at the dark-haired bloke. It was strange, but now that Draco was calm, there was something oddly familiar about him. “She looked too good and too friendly to be a stray. I was going to put up a message on my door, but I’m glad I found you beforehand and got her back to you.”

His smile was annoying. But nothing could harm Draco’s current mood.

“Uh, I’m Harry, by the way. And that’s Ron, my roommate.”

Draco finally granted the other man in the room a look. He looked just as unimpressive as the other one did. And to think that his cat was hanging out with  _ these _ guys! But he was well-brought up and his mother taught him manners. So he nodded at the ginger and then turned back to the other one.

“I’m Draco. I live a few houses down the street.” He allowed his hand to stroke his cat’s silky hair. “Thank you. I really appreciate it.”

He turned to leave when his curiosity got the best of him. “Do I know you from somewhere?” He paused for a short moment. “Did you fix my toilet a few months ago?”

He noticed a shade of pink spreading on the other man’s cheeks. Behind him, the other one – Ron, was it? – chuckled.

“No, I don’t think so. But I think… you take philosophy, right? At Nottingham University.”

Draco frowned. They  _ studied _ together? “Yes. Sorry, I didn’t place you right. Well, I guess I’ll see you around,” he said, glancing at the door. Cassiopeia was getting anxious in his arms. “Thanks again, for my cat. I will really appreciate it though if you don’t let her in anymore; I prefer her to wait for me.”

“Oh… uhm, she really begged to come in, but alright. I can do that. I’ll see you around.”

Draco spared him one more look before he exited the house and made his way towards his own place.

*

“Are you going to let her in?”

Harry looked at Ron. They’d been sharing this rental home for a few months already, ever since Harry got accepted to Nottingham University. Ron wasn’t studying there, but he was looking for any opportunity to escape his overcrowded childhood home, and Harry’s desperate need for a roommate served as the perfect opportunity.

Harry looked through the window. Cassiopeia, his classmate’s cat, was standing at his door and meowing. It was heartbreaking, really.

“Maybe. I don’t know.”

“That Draco bloke asked us not to.”

“Yeah, I know…” Harry replied. “But look at her! She’s so miserable all on her own. What if she’s hungry?”

“Then she can catch a mouse. I gotta tell you, he looked a bit scary. I don’t want to mess with him.”

“Nonsense! And I don’t think she can catch a mouse. She looks incredibly spoiled.”

There was a short pause and then Ron was standing right next to him. “Yeah, I think you’re right. She looks like she couldn’t catch a mouse even if it had all its legs removed,” he chuckled. “But I still don’t think you should let her in again.”

Harry knew he was right. It didn’t look like she was starving; she was more of a chonk of fur than a skinny, starved stray. But how could he say no to those blue eyes and begging meow? “Oh, bugger it. Look, his car’s super loud. I’ll just let her out as soon as I hear it. Just this once,” Harry promised as he opened the door.

*

He meant for it to be just a one-time thing. Harry really had the intention of following what was requested of him. But once turned into twice, and twice turned into almost every day and weekly trips to the pet store to get cat treats. It seemed that Draco wasn’t home a lot; and when Harry deliberately sat closer to him in class, or followed him and his friends, he learned why: apparently Draco was a law student. They were notorious for not having much time. He also learned that he was living an incredibly different life than him: while Harry was fighting for scholarships, Draco had his parents donate to the school in order to have his classes organized to his liking, and one time he hinted to have them request he’d get a binary passing grade at a class he was failing – but he never said that as a fact.

Harry found himself fascinated by him. He knew that he was attracted to him. It was hard not to be: he had unique-colored eyes, and a well-proportioned face; his clothes seemed to be tailored to his figure, which, if Harry had to guess, he spent quite a lot of time toning and perfecting. He’d have to be mad – or straight – not to be attracted to him.

Ron had called him out on it, too. It seemed that when he came back home he had the tendency to talk more and more about Draco. He even mentioned, one time when Harry was almost too late to let Cassiopeia out, that he was deliberately trying to get caught.

Which, of course, was utter bullshit.

Until he  _ was _ caught.

Harry would have sworn it was unintentional. He was just distracted and didn’t hear his car, and Ron was at work, and therefore couldn’t tell him. He only realized that he had to let Cassiopeia out when the cat started meowing at him insistently.

Alarmed, Harry rushed towards the door and opened it. The cat walked out, but it was clearly too late when he saw Draco walking towards his house. He waited only until he heard the knocks on his door to open it, and put on his most innocent face.

*

It wasn’t exactly what she had intended when she decided to visit the neighbor’s house every time she managed to slip out of her own home. But it was just as good.

True, her main concern was food. And that had stayed the same.

There was no doubt in Cassiopeia’s mind that her human was a lonely man. She knew he wasn’t home a lot, but she knew it was due to human things, and not friends, or, which was much more important from her feline point of view, mating partners. Not that she minded that he returned home to her every day, or that there weren’t any strangers invading her territory; but she  _ did _ mind that when he was home he wasn’t giving her  _ her _ space.

She missed him when he was out, that was for sure, but there were only so many hugs and kisses she could suffer through before she will scratch and bite him. And while she knew she could do that, and not feel too guilty, she had a feeling it wouldn’t be welcomed by her human. She didn’t think he’d kick her out, he clearly loved her, but it was almost certain he would treat her less well, and that was definitely an unwanted outcome.

So when she got caught due to the neighbor’s inattentiveness, and she felt the change in the atmosphere, she thought that there might be something more to be gained. As an experiment, she refused, at first, to go back to her human, even when he called her name, and instead she rubbed herself against the other human’s leg. She even fought when he picked her up – something she tried not to do usually since she learned early on that it would just lead to her being thrown back to the ground – in an attempt to make the humans talk.

Luckily, fighting had worked, and it got them to talk.

The first good outcome was that she received permission to visit this house, where she received treats whenever she asked, and she was petted only when she wanted, and no one chased her to kiss her.

The second was that the humans then started talking every time her human came to pick her up and take her home. At first they were short talks, just asking about idle, unimportant things. But soon enough the conversations became longer, and then they started sharing a cup of that horrid drink humans seemed to enjoy so much – the one that smelled incredible, but tasted like her worst nightmares. Some time after that the drinks became food, which was even better for her because then she would sometimes receive some food.

She purred as the dark haired human scratched her under her chin. For some reason, it made him make that weird sound humans sometimes made when they were happy.

“She likes you,” her human said. She didn’t like to admit it, but he was right. He took good care of her, after all; and he made her human give her more space.

“They do say that pets tend to take after their owners,” the one petting her replied.

She hated when her human was referred to as her ‘owner’, but there wasn’t much she could do about it. Other than give him a little bite. Not too hard; but just enough to make her point.

For some reason it made him laugh. It annoyed her, but she felt too warm and relaxed to continue caring.

“She definitely takes after you,” he said.

“Excellent. I’m a wonderful person.”

She had to agree with her human. Despite some of his flaws, he was good. For a human.

  
  
  



End file.
